Heartfelt chronicles and incisive essays on women artists from Francesca Woodman to Marlene Dumas

Nobody writes about art like Estelle Hoy. Overpriced cheesecakes are the starting point for an essay on art writing; shoplifting in Berlin opens to a reflection on the economies of activist practices; fiction allows for discussion of the legacy of institutional critique, queer melanges or quiet melancholy. To her, the story of art becomes more nuanced in light of lyrics by Arthur Russell, the posthumous sorrow of Sylvia Plath or a poem by Yvonne Rainer. Sake Blue gathers Hoy's critical essays and reviews, primarily on women artists. Echoing the work of Herve Guibert or Camille Henrot, Hoy's writing suggests that art can be the place for subjectivities to take shape in relation to forms, ideas and the other. Estelle Hoy is a writer and art critic based in Berlin. Her critically acclaimed book Pisti, 80 Rue de Belleville was published in 2020.